Toronto Eaton Centre

[ILuvTO]

I'd be surprised if selling the name also meant including the lease of the Sears store at Younge and Dundas. Sears recently sold their Jarvis street head office and moved all their associates to the Younge and Dundas store. Half the 4th floor has been converted to office space, while floors 5, 6, and 7 have been fully converted to office space. After Sears took over Eatons 9 years ago, they also let go of the floor that was two below. This was converted to regular mall retail. The location, while still big, doesn't feel like much of a flagship store anymore.

As for department stores being on the decline, I agree partly. Department stores as they exist today are most certainly on the decline. The only way for them to survive is to change and evolve. If you really think about it, they haven't changed much at all. In any retail store, it's all about merchandise. You have to know your customers, and you have to know what they want and what excites them. If they're excited, they'll come to your store. Apple is a great example, albeit not a department store. I think Bonnie Brooks is on the right track at the Bay. Rome wasn't built in a day, and the Bay will not be fully turned around overnight. But I have been in the flagship store and the difference is certainly noticeable. I only see things getting better for them.

 

[MetroMan]

Tonight I bumped into the person who told me about this a few years ago when I started this thread. She no longer works for Sears but when she left, they had stopped trying to sell the Eaton's brand. No serious bids emerged which I find kind of sad considering the cachet previously associated with the name.

I guess the name really isn't much without an actual department store associated with it and these days, nobody wants to get into the department store business. If anything, they want to get out. Still, I think that a saavy investor could take the name and start an online business with the brand.

 

[OttoSchloss]

Sears should wok on revitalizing and re-imagining their own brand. They're in danger of disappearing themselves.

 

[DavidJamesTO]

Instead of revitalizing the Sears brand, why not just rename the entire Sears Canada chain? The major stores in the big cities could be Eatons and the smaller stores could be renamed Simpsons. It's a start at least.

 

[alklay]

Eatons has no favourable name recognition (especially with the young)...so why bother?

 

[urbandreamer]

Isn't the Eaton Centre supposed to be renovated soon? With another condo building on top? I read about rumours of a makeover on SSP's Vancouver forum.

 

[DavidJamesTO]

I hope so--it could use it.

 

[adma]

I've suggested before that Sears could well wind up co-opted by Ryerson--and the metal party wall on the School of Business certainly suggests the potential of an "add-on" on the Sears site...

 

[MetroMan]

Rehashing this thread was like a bad omen: today, 9 of my friends @ The Bay got laid off. NINE! A few of them really needed the job, I feel bad for them. It looks like things are only getting worse and worse for department stores.

 

[urbandreamer]

^Or retail in general.

 

[Duke-of-East-York]

Isn't the Eaton Centre supposed to be renovated soon? With another condo building on top? I read about rumours of a makeover on SSP's Vancouver forum.

I'm kind of surprised it hasn't been renovated. At least do something to the main food court.

 

[urbandreamer]

According to the SSP poster, it will be extensively renovated. There may be a condo tower placed above the Sears area, with major redevelopment happening--Sears moving out perhaps? He seemed to hint that CF was going to start within the next 2 years. I'll find the exact post sometime.

 

[JasonParis]

According to the SSP poster, it will be extensively renovated. There may be a condo tower placed above the Sears area, with major redevelopment happening--Sears moving out perhaps? He seemed to hint that CF was going to start within the next 2 years. I'll find the exact post sometime.

Seems unlikely that Sears will move-out after all the expense of recently moving their head office into the Eaton Centre (above their store). TEC could definitely use a reno though. Maybe we'll finally get the long rumoured "merging of the food courts" in a central spot.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I wonder if they can get rid of the parking garage fronting Yonge and actually replace it with what, maybe 4 more floors of additional retail? Parking can't possibly be worth more in a mall that is oversubscribed. That, or the unlikely possiblity of extending the atrium through Sears and subdividing that space.

AoD

 

[JasonParis]

I wonder if they can get rid of the parking garage fronting Yonge and actually replace it with what, maybe 4 more floors of additional retail? Parking can't possibly be worth more in a mall that is oversubscribed. That, or the unlikely possiblity of extending the atrium through Sears and subdividing that space.
AoD

Having the atrium extended through Sears would fulfill Zeidler's original vision for the complex, although hard to do with Sears Canada's HQ up there.